At the end of last summer (2019), I found myself drawing apes. No real reason. Perhaps, it was because I still subscribe to the vintage notion that apes are inherently funny. Drawing a few pages of primates cavorting brought a smile to my face. (Making myself smile is the chief reason to draw.)

In September, I posted this drawing of an ape on my Flickr page. I liked the way that a few simple props could suggest a career. That led to more ape sketches with wardrobe details and props to suggest occupations. (See below.)

In November, I thought about bringing lots of different apes together...perhaps a crowded coffee shop. (See below.)

I still like this idea of a coffee shop. I might come back to it in the future with a wider range of creatures. Watch for a letterpress print based on the idea of having coffee with aliens. Meanwhile, for a jigsaw puzzle, it seemed like there ought to be a lot more characters than one can fit into a coffee shop. Dozens? Hundreds?

Memory Lane. Back when I had a real job, I flew to client meetings almost every week. I spent way too much time in airports. I was inspired to do a rough sketch with apes queueing in those long, snaky lines I remembered from countless hours in U.S. airports. (See below.)

The sketch above convinced me this could make a distinctive jigsaw puzzle. All I needed to do was draw and color 150 different apes. Get started.

Winter work. Day after day, I got to draw ape travelers and alien travelers. First in pencil and then inked with brush pens. (See below.) Each character would audition for a place in the design. Many were rejected. I scanned and colored the finalists digitally and added each to the airport scene. 

Airports always seemed to have advertising posters mixed in with the travelers. So I added some posters to break up the crowds. In December, I was fooling around with a pattern based on fig newtons, so that pattern became one of the posters. (See below.) Other posters promote bananas and space travel. Of course.

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This puzzle design is already an outdated anachronism. I finished the design at the end of February 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic starting inconveniencing the U.S. Just before everyone decided to stop going to airports and to wear masks outside the house. (Only one traveler in the scene is wearing a mask. See below.)

Don’t forget, jigsaw puzzles can be an amusing diversion for people trapped in their homes as plagues sweep back and forth across the land. So, I’m working on a few more designs. Designing them is a good activity for me while I’m under house arrest.

Don–Pittsburgh, July 24, 2020